Unity week highlights what religions have in common, priest says

Published: 2007-01-16

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- The commonality that religious faiths share goes back thousands of years, and Jesus' intent was for the different faiths to work together, said a San Francisco priest. The annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed Jan. 18-25, offers an opportunity for religions to celebrate what they have in common and to promote dialogue among them. The weeklong observance was started in 1908 by Father Paul Wattson, founder of the Atonement Friars, said Father Gerard O'Rourke, who recently retired as director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. "Dialogue between and among the different faiths has been the focus of the friars and the week of prayer gives fuel to the effort each year," he told Catholic San Francisco, the newspaper of the archdiocese. Ecumenism means getting along even with differences of opinion, Father O'Rourke said. "The unity Jesus talked about didn't mean conformity and lock stepping and marching down through life. The spirit of ecumenism includes that we are able and committed to work together. That was Jesus' intent when he says, 'That all may be one,' in John's Gospel."

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